Evaluation of a patient's interior organs is necessary in instances where a patient needs surgery. Certain organs, for example, need closer evaluation during medical procedures and therefore medical professionals take extra precaution during such evaluations. Among some of the most critical evaluations conducted, heart evaluations are becoming more prevalent.
During data acquisition for medical scans several hundred images are usually recorded, such as during a heart scan, and a patient is subjected to a large dose of radiation. This is specifically the case during cardiac scans when multiple phases of the heart are recorded during C-arm rotations to attempt to capture the heart in different configurations during beating. The radiation dose provided to the patient can be justified, if data acquisition is used for critical diagnostic evaluation and no other alternatives exist. The purpose of data acquisition is to obtain a three dimensional volume data set for the patient so the medical researcher can review navigation pathways inside the heart easier (i.e. during the ablation procedure). The risks to the patient, however, must be outweighed by the benefits conferred for the analysis to occur. Many medical procedures require precision placement of the instruments like catheters or needles. For example during the treatment of the Atrial Fibrillation (a form of the heart arrhythmia) the RF (radio frequency) ablation is performed on the inner surface of the heart chamber with aid of a special ablation catheter inserted intravenously into the heart. This ablation has to be done in precise locations determined by the earlier measurement (mapping) of the electrical waveforms on the inner surface of the left atrium. The entire procedure (mapping and ablation) takes typically several hours and is performed under low-dose (“Fluoro”) x-ray to aid the physician in manipulating the catheter. The other, similar example is the deployment of the pacemaker leads. There are also many examples outside the cardiology where the success of the procedure depends on the precision of placement of the instrument inside treated organ, for example for the local drug delivery.
There is a need to provide medical professionals with a classifying system that would allow the professional to view the interior structure of a patients heart to help with patient evaluation, as well as allow medical professionals the ability to navigate within a patient's heart
There is a further need to provide a medical professional with the capability to evaluate a patient's heart while minimizing potential radiation exposure of the patient.
There is also a further need to provide for accurate representation of a patients heart while using technology that is adaptable to currently used apparatus by medical professionals.